December 14, 2012
Oscars Academy honors Pedro Almodovar in London
By Jill Lawless
LONDON (AP) — Iconoclastic director Pedro Almodovar was hailed by Hollywood on Thursday at an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences retrospective in London.
The Spanish filmmaker received tributes from colleagues and admirers, including fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, screenwriter Peter Morgan and fellow director Stephen Frears — who praised Almodovar’s “transgressive, inventive” spirit.
Quentin Tarantino, in a video message, said Almodovar was the contemporary director he admired most.
Almodovar is part of a creative generation that emerged after Spain ended decades of dictatorship in the late 1970s. His quirky and sometimes outrageous films helped launch the careers of Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem.
He found international success with “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” in 1988.
Almodovar’s 1999 movie “All About My Mother” won the Academy Award for best foreign language film, and he took the best original screenplay Oscar in 2002 for “Talk to Her.”
His films — up to last year’s “The Skin I Live In” — remain a heady mix of comedy, tragedy, melodrama, music and more.
Almodovar said he was honored to receive recognition from Hollywood — if a bit surprised.
“My way of creating and producing and directing is so different from the big companies,” he said. “I represent all the independent filmmakers who deserve recognition.
“For reasons I don’t understand, (Hollywood) made an exception for me. Maybe it’s because in my films a lot of things happen, and that entertains them.”
Shhhh! A new law says TV ads can’t blare anymore
NEW YORK (AP) – TV viewing could soon sound a little calmer. The CALM Act, which limits the volume of TV commercials, goes into effect on Thursday.
CALM stands for Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation. The act is designed to prevent TV commercials from blaring at louder volumes than the program content they accompany. The rules govern broadcasters as well as cable and satellite operators.
The rules are meant to protect viewers from excessively loud commercials.
The Federal Communications Commission adopted the rules a year ago, but gave the industry a one-year grace period to adopt them.
Suspected violations can be reported by the public to the FCC on its website.
Facebook poised to roll out more privacy controls
By Michael Liedtke, Technology Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook is trying to make its privacy controls easier to find and understand in an effort to turn the world’s largest social network in to a more discreet place.
The fine-tuning announced Wednesday will include several revisions that will start rolling out to Facebook’s more than 1 billion users during the next few weeks and continue into early next year.
The most visible, and perhaps most appreciated, change will be a new “privacy shortcuts” section that appears as a tiny lock on the right-hand side at the top of people’s news feeds. This feature offers a drop-down box where users can get answers to common questions such as “Who can see my stuff?” and “How do I stop someone from bothering me?”
Other updates will include a tool that enables individuals to review all the publicly available pictures identifying them on Facebook and suggestions on how to request that an embarrassing or unflattering photograph be removed. Facebook also plans to plant a privacy education page at the top of its users’ news feeds within the next month or so to help them better manage their online identities.
This marks the most extensive overhaul of Facebook’s privacy controls in about 15 months.
The new controls are an implicit acknowledgement by Facebook that the nearly 9-year-old service hasn’t always done the best job providing its users with easily accessible ways to corral the information and photos being posted on the website.
Facebook’s critics suspect the social network deliberately obfuscated its privacy controls as part of a scheme to expose as much personal information as possible to help the company attract more advertisers.
But that has never been the case, according to Samuel Lessin, Facebook’s director of product management. “Our number one priority is to not surprise users with our controls,” he said.
Facebook Inc., which is based in Menlo Park, Calif., began paying more attention to its privacy controls and reputation as it matured into one of the world’s best-known companies. The scrutiny has intensified since Facebook became a publicly traded company seven months ago.
Some of the upcoming changes reflect Facebook’s ambition to establish its website as a digital scrapbook that will contain key moments spanning many decades of its users’ lives.
The new photo-reviewing tool is designed to make it easier for someone to flag old pictures that might not seem as cool as they once did. For instance, a Facebook user who didn’t mind being shown quaffing beer from a keg as an 18-year-old in college might not feel comfortable having that image publicly available as a 30-year-old looking for a job or starting a family.
Facebook rarely will remove a photo on its own, but one of its new features helps users ask a friend who posted the image to take it down.
Facebook is reshuffling its privacy controls the same week that it revoked its users’ right to vote on changes to the social network’s privacy policies. Lessin said the timing is purely coincidental.
DGA Hires Assistant Executive Director Michael BergerLOS ANGELES–Directors Guild of America National Executive Director Jay D. Roth announced today that Michael Berger has joined the executive staff of the DGA as an Assistant Executive Director in the Guild’s New York offices.
Berger will be involved in the negotiation and administration of the DGA’s network and live and taped television agreements and will also oversee all issues related to Associate Directors, Stage Managers and Production Associates on the East Coast, including serving as staff liaison to the AD/SM/PA Council East. He will report to Associate National Executive Director/Eastern Executive Director Russell Hollander.
Prior to joining the DGA, Berger worked as a field attorney at the National Labor Relations Board in New York, where he investigated and litigated unfair labor practice charges and conducted representation hearings and elections. Berger received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his J.D. from Cornell Law School.
The Mill adds Nathan Kane as sr. Flame artist
NEW YORK–Nathan Kane ha joined The Mill New York as sr. Flame artist. As the newest addition to the Mill’s 2D team, Kane will be responsible for overseeing and working directly with clients as well as in-house staff. From design to final completion, he will be creating and compositing visual effects for commercials, music videos and broadcast projects and managing coordination of all 2D, live-action elements and visual effects.
Kane previously worked at Absolute Post where he moved from London to help establish their New York office in 2008. He most recently held the position of creative director there before joining The Mill this month.
Kane is experienced in the U.S. market, having worked with directors such as Dave Meyers, Patrick Hughes, Brent Bonacorso, The Vikings, Filip Engstrom and Edouard Salier. He has also worked with a number of leading global brands on recent campaigns including Reebok, Sprite, LG, American Express, Levis, NFL, Mastercard, Verizon, Puma, Dell, and Chase.
“Flight,” “Django Unchained” among NAACP nominees
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Flight,” ”Django Unchained,” ”Beasts of the Southern Wild,” ”Red Tails” and “Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds” are up for the outstanding motion picture trophy at the NAACP Image Awards.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced the nominations Tuesday for the awards that honor diversity in the arts. The 44th annual ceremony is scheduled to air Feb. 1 on NBC.
Other nominees included outstanding actor in a motion picture contenders Denzel Washington for “Flight,” Jamie Foxx for “Django Unchained,” Morgan Freeman for “The Magic of Belle Isle,” Suraj Sharma for “Life of Pi” and Tyler Perry for “Alex Cross.”
The outstanding actress nominees are Emayatzy Corinealdi for “Middle of Nowhere,” Halle Berry for “Cloud Atlas,” Loretta Devine for “In the Hive,” Quvenzhane Wallis for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” and Viola Davis for “Won’t Back Down.”
In the outstanding supporting actor category, David Oyelowo was nominated for “Middle of Nowhere,” Don Cheadle for “Flight,” Dwight Henry for “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Lenny Kravitz for “The Hunger Games” and Samuel L. Jackson for “Django Unchained.”
The nominees for outstanding supporting actress are Amandla Stenberg for “The Hunger Games,” Gloria Reuben for “Lincoln,” Kerry Washington for “Django Unchained,” Phylicia Rashad for “Tyler Perry’s Good Deads” and Taraji P. Henson for “Think Like a Man.”
On the television side, “Glee,” ”Modern Family,” ”The Game,” ”The Mindy Project” and “The Soul Man” were nominated for outstanding comedy series, while “Boardwalk Empire,” ”Grey’s Anatomy,” ”Scandal,” ”Treme” and “True Blood” nabbed dramatic series nominations.
Outstanding comedy series actor nominees are Cheadle for “House of Lies,” Anthony Anderson for “Guys With Kids,” Damon Wayons Jr. for “Happy Endings,” Donald Faison for “The Exes” and Hosea Chanchez for “The Game.”
Outstanding comedy series actress nominees are Amber Riley for “Glee,” Cassi Davis for “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” Kellita Smith for “The First Family,” Tatyana Ali for “Love That Girl” and Wendy Raquel Robinson for “The Game.”
Nominations for outstanding actor in a drama series went to Dule Hill for “Psych,” Hill Harper for “CSI: NY,” LL Cool J for “NCIS: Los Angeles,” Michael Clarke Duncan for “The Finder” and Wendell Pierce for “Treme.”
Chandra Wilson of “Grey’s Anatomy,” Kerry Washington of “Scandal,” Khandi Alexander of “Treme,” Regina King of “Southland” and Sandra Oh of “Grey’s Anatomy” were nominated for outstanding drama series actress.
Serial drama producer Paul Rauch dies in NY at 78
NEW YORK (AP) — Paul Rauch, a longtime executive in the daytime drama world who produced “Another World,” ”One Life to Live” and “Santa Barbara,” has died at age 78.
He died Monday in New York of complications from blood clots, his wife, playwright Israela Margalit, said Tuesday.
Rauch, described in TV Guide Canada as “the most prolific and talented executive producer in soap opera history,” won two Daytime Emmys, the first in 1976 for his production of “Another World.” In 2000, he won for executive-producing a children’s film, “Run the Wild Fields.”
He wanted to be an actor but settled into work crafting shows behind the scenes instead. He had a brief stint as vice president of daytime programs for CBS in the 1970s and produced the theatrical film “Lovers Knot,” starring Tim Curry and Jennifer Grey, in 1995.
His skill in serial drama also brought him success in overseas markets, producing the Russian prime-time series “Poory Nastya” and “Pushkin.” He developed the drama series “Ocean Front” and “Rendezvous” in Poland.
Rauch’s last television job took him to the top of the ratings, with longtime leader “The Young and the Restless,” for which he was co-executive producer from 2008 until falling ill last year.
VES Extends Exec Director Roth’s Contract Until Dec. 2018
LOS ANGELES–The Visual Effects Society, the honorary organization representing artists and technologists in visual effects worldwide, announced today that it has renewed its contract with executive director Eric Roth, extending it until December 2018.
Under Roth’s leadership as executive director beginning in 2004, the Society has more than tripled its size – from 900 members to more than 2,700 members worldwide in twenty-eight countries.
Roth’s efforts have also led to the formation of VES Sections in the San Francisco Bay Area, greater New York area, Vancouver, Montreal, London, Australia and New Zealand. He has presided over the VES during a time of tremendous change in the entertainment industry, which relies now more than ever on the use of visual effects to make stories come alive and generate returns at the box office.
“I am honored to receive this vote of confidence from the Board of VES, and proud to continue representing our members to the film, television, animation and entertainment community,” said Roth. “The VES plays a critical role for the VFX community, which isn’t otherwise represented by a union or trade organization, by facilitating dialogue among our members and the entertainment industry at-large.”
“Mr. Roth has continued to go above and beyond in his service to the VES – not just to the membership but to the entire entertainment community,” said Jeffrey A. Okun, VES chair. “When we consider the challenges that are facing visual effects artists and our industry as a whole, we have come to realize that Eric’s passion, dedication, leadership and guidance has become paramount to bringing about the eventual change that must occur – and still keep our core mission – to honor, recognize, educate and form a trusted community in which our art will thrive.”
Part of that recognition continues with the 11th Annual VES Awards show, which is scheduled for February 5, 2013.
104 original scores in 2012 Oscar race
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.–One hundred four scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 85th Academy Awards๏ฟฝ, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.
The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:
“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” Henry Jackman, composer
“After the Wizard,” Stephen Main, composer
“Alex Cross,” John Debney and Sebastian Morton, composers
“The Amazing Spider-Man,” James Horner, composer
“Anna Karenina,” Dario Marianelli, composer
“Argo,” Alexandre Desplat, composer
“Battleship,” Steve Jablonsky, composer
“The Bay,” Marcelo Zarvos, composer
“Beasts of the Southern Wild,” Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin, composers
“Being Flynn,” Damon Gough, composer
“The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” Thomas Newman, composer
“Big Miracle,” Cliff Eidelman, composer
“Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story,” David Cieri, composer
“Brave,” Patrick Doyle, composer
“Brooklyn Castle,” B. Satz, composer
“Chasing Ice,” J. Ralph, composer
“Chasing Mavericks,” Chad Fischer, composer
“Chicken with Plums,” Olivier Bernet, composer
“Chimpanzee,” Nicholas Hooper, composer
“Cloud Atlas,” Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek, composers
“Compliance,” Heather McIntosh, composer
“Contraband,” Clinton Shorter, composer
“The Dark Knight Rises,” Hans Zimmer, composer
“Dark Shadows,” Danny Elfman, composer
“Darling Companion,” James Newton Howard, composer
“Deadfall,” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, composers
“The Dictator,” Erran Baron Cohen, composer
“Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” John Powell, composer
“End of Watch,” David Sardy, composer
“Ethel,” Miriam Cutler, composer
“Flight,” Alan Silvestri, composer
“For a Good Time, Call…” John Swihart, composer
“For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada,” James Horner, composer
“Frankenweenie,” Danny Elfman, composer
“Fun Size,” Deborah Lurie, composer
“Girl in Progress,” Christopher Lennertz, composer
“The Grey,” Marc Streitenfeld, composer
“The Guilt Trip,” Christophe Beck, composer
“Hidden Moon,” Luis Bacalov, composer
“Hitchcock,” Danny Elfman, composer
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Howard Shore, composer
“Hotel Transylvania,” Mark Mothersbaugh, composer
“House at the End of the Street,” Theo Green, composer
“The Hunger Games,” James Newton Howard, composer
“Hyde Park on Hudson,” Jeremy Sams, composer
“Ice Age Continental Drift,” John Powell, composer
“The Impossible,” Fernando Vel๏ฟฝzquez, composer
“Jack Reacher,” Joe Kraemer, composer
“John Carter,” Michael Giacchino, composer
“Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” Andrew Lockington, composer
“Lawless,” Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, composers
“Life of Pi,” Mychael Danna, composer
“Lincoln,” John Williams, composer
“Lola Versus,” Will Bates and Philip Mossman, composers
“Looper,” Nathan Johnson, composer
“The Lucky One,” Mark Isham, composer
“LUV,” Nuno Malo, composer
“The Man with the Iron Fists,” RZA and Howard Drossin, composers
“Marvel’s The Avengers,” Alan Silvestri, composer
“The Master,” Jonny Greenwood, composer
“Men in Black 3,” Danny Elfman, composer
“Middle of Nowhere,” Kathryn Bostic, composer
“Mirror Mirror,” Alan Menken, composer
“The Odd Life of Timothy Green,” Geoff Zanelli, composer
“On the Road,” Gustavo Santaolalla, composer
“The Pardon,” Ashley Irwin, composer
“Parental Guidance,” Marc Shaiman, composer
“People Like Us,” A.R. Rahman, composer
“The Possession,” Anton Sanko, composer
“Prometheus,” Marc Streitenfeld, composer
“Promised Land,” Danny Elfman, composer
“The Raid: Redemption,” Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese, composers
“Red Tails,” Terence Blanchard, composer
“Rise of the Guardians,” Alexandre Desplat, composer
“Ruby Sparks,” Nick Urata, composer
“Safe House,” Ramin Djawadi, composer
“Safety Not Guaranteed,” Ryan Miller, composer
“Saint Dracula,” Sreevalsan J. Menon, composer
“Savages,” Adam Peters, composer
“Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” Rob Simonsen and Jonathan Sadoff, composers
“The Sessions,” Marco Beltrami, composer
“Sinister,” Christopher Young, composer
“Skyfall,” Thomas Newman, composer
“Smashed,” Eric D. Johnson and Andy Cabic, composers
“Snow White and the Huntsman,” James Newton Howard, composer
“Taken 2,” Nathaniel Mechaly, composer
“Ted,” Walter Murphy, composer
“Think Like a Man,” Christopher Lennertz, composer
“This Means War,” Christophe Beck, composer
“A Thousand Words,” John Debney, composer
“The Three Stooges,” John Debney, composer
“Trashed,” Vangelis, composer
“Trouble with the Curve,” Marco Beltrami, composer
“21 Jump Street,” Mark Mothersbaugh, composer
“The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2,” Carter Burwell, composer
“Until They Are Home,” Jamie Dunlap, composer
“War of the Worlds The True Story,” Jamie Hall, composer
“The Watch,” Christophe Beck, composer
“West of Memphis,” Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, composers
“Where Do We Go Now?” Khaled Mouzanar, composer
“Won’t Back Down,” Marcelo Zarvos, composer
“The Words,” Marcelo Zarvos, composer
“Wreck-It Ralph,” Henry Jackman, composer
“Zero Dark Thirty,” Alexandre Desplat, composer
A Reminder List of works submitted in the Original Score category will be made available with a nominations ballot to all members of the Music Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award.
To be eligible, the original score must be a substantial body of music that serves as original dramatic underscoring, and must be written specifically for the motion picture by the submitting composer. Scores diluted by the use of tracked themes or other preexisting music, diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs, or assembled from the music of more than one composer shall not be eligible.
The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center๏ฟฝ, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.
Translation names Tiffany Coletti Titolo as Managing DirectorNEW YORK–Translation LLC, a privately-owned, full-service marketing agency today announced the appointment of Tiffany Coletti Titolo to a newly created managing director role. Effective immediately, Coletti Titolo will oversee Translation’s New York and Chicago offices and report directly to agency CEO and founder, Steve Stoute.
Coletti Titolo came to New York after a successful stint in San Francisco where she was based for more than 10 years. Before taking a recent role at StrawberryFrog NY, Coletti Titolo was managing director of DOJO, responsible for overseeing the agency’s day-to-day operations in its NY and SF offices, business development, client relationships and partnerships with parent company Grupo ABC.
Prior, she was group account director at Eleven, Inc., and before that, director, business development for McCann Worldgroup. Through her career, she has worked on a suite of iconic brands that include General Motors, Apple, Microsoft, Virgin America, Visa and AT&T.
Fiscal cliff ads pick up where campaign stoppedBy Henry C. Jackson
WASHINGTON (AP) — Debate over the “fiscal cliff” has money pouring into television, print, radio and online ads, picking up where the wall-to-wall election campaign left off.
As Republicans and the White House joust over a way around big year-end tax increases and spending cuts, outside groups on both sides are weighing in with major ad campaigns aimed at politicians and voters alike.
The latest is Crossroads GPS, the Karl Rove-backed conservative group last seen dropping more than $80 million on ads assailing President Barack Obama in his re-election campaign.
Its new $500,000 buy, announced Wednesday, has attributes familiar to viewers acquainted with the political attack-ad genre. It features dreary, dread-inducing music, foreboding narration and grainy footage. All that’s changed is its aim. Instead of denying Obama re-election, the intent is to defeat his policy.
“So far, a huge tax increase is his solution,” a narrator says, before imploring viewers to personally call the president.
If anything, Crossroads is slow to enter the fiscal cliff fray.
Within days of Obama’s Nov. 6 victory over Republican Mitt Romney, outside groups were keying up ad campaigns designed to shape the fiscal debate. The range of participants — from business interests opposing higher tax rates on the wealthy to unions that want to raise them and advocates for the elderly opposed to cutting benefits — reflects the messy tangle of issues that Congress and the White House are dealing with.
In general, the ads are less sharp-edged than the most caustic 2012 election spots. In many cases, the intent is to bring pressure to bear on the whole of Congress, not just a particular member or group of members. But combined, the ads reflect the high stakes involved and intense competition to shape the outcome.
AARP, the 37-million-member group that lobbies for the elderly, is running ads nationally that home in on two key aspects of the debate: potential changes to Medicare and Social Security. They lambaste Washington politicians as a whole for even talking about Medicare and Social Security changes “behind closed doors.”
In one of the TV ads, a narrator speaks as images of seniors hugging grandchildren, mulling drug choices at a pharmacy and looking forlornly at the camera flash across the screen. “We’ll all pay the price” if hasty cuts are included in a year-end deal, the narrator says.
Labor unions that traditionally support Democrats are producing more explicitly political advertising. Three of them — The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the National Education Association — joined to buy TV and radio ads targeting specific lawmakers in both parties in Colorado, Missouri, Virginia, Alaska and Pennsylvania. The ads ask voters to call their senators and congressman and push for a deal that protects the “middle class.”
“We shouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class,” the narrator says in one radio ad. “But if Congress fails to act soon, that’s exactly what will happen.”
Other ads hammer home the stakes of the debate, something all of the groups that have invested money in “cliff” ads seem to agree on.
An online ad from The Business Roundtable features a gloomy narrator making that case that Congress will be to blame for an economic slowdown and sharply higher taxes if no deal is made. It includes foggy images of two key players in the debate, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“If Congress does not act, growth will stall, jobs will be lost and our nation’s credit will be harmed. If Congress does not act, America’s entire economy will be put at risk,” the narrator says over images of Reid, Boehner and the Capitol dome.
Academy Award maker plans layoffs in ChicagoCHICAGO (AP) — The company that makes the gold-plated Oscar statues will lay off almost 100 employees in the process of being bought out. But some workers could be rehired, it said, and the one-of-a-kind awards will still be produced on Chicago’s north side.
R.S. Owens & Co. Inc. said in a notice this week to the Illinois Department of Commerce that it will lay off 95 of its roughly 250 workers on Dec. 17, the day it will be taken over by St. Regis Crystal. St. Regis has been an Owens competitor with home offices in Markham, Ontario, and Indianapolis.
Owens has made the statues for about 30 years and will continue to manufacture both the Oscars and the Emmy Awards statues, company President Scott Siegel said Friday. Most of the laid-off employees have applied for jobs with St. Regis, he said, though not all will be rehired.
Siegel, whose grandfather, Owen Siegel, started the company in 1938, said the company has struggled for several years. He blames its troubles on America’s economic slowdown and competition from Chinese companies that have lower production costs.
“There’s definitely some bittersweetness in that a third-generation, almost 75-year-old company is in a position where, due to the economy and due to China, we were forced to look to another company to partner with,” Siegel said. “I’m hopeful however with the investment of capital in our company by St. Regis that we’ll be perhaps able to automate more in the future and compete.”
The 64-year-old Owens has worked for the company full-time since 1980, but said he worked there often even as a child.
Becoming the Oscar manufacturer in the early ’80s, he said, “was a huge deal.”
About 50 of the 13 1/2-inch-tall, half-pound statues are manufactured every year for the Academy Awards. The statues are made of a metal called brittanium, whose makeup is proprietary, and coated in gold.
Siegel said R.S. Owens will start work on the Oscar statues soon in advance of the Feb. 24 show. But right now, the factory is producing, among other things, trophies for this year’s Cotton Bowl.
Part of the labor cost problem, Siegel said, is the time spent polishing the statues by hand.
“Just on the statuette, there’s over an hour of polishing,” he said, “and on the base there’s probably 45 minutes of polishing.”
St. Regis President Richard Firkser said that labor-intensive process is part of the reason his company is buying R.S. Owens.
“It’s really the workmanship of the artisans in Chicago that make it happen,” he said. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t make economic sense to hire back each and every employee.”
Firkser said he doesn’t know yet how many will be rehired, and he declined to say how much St. Regis is paying for R.S. Owens.
The Owens name will continue to be used for the Oscars and other products made in Chicago.
An email request for comment sent by The Associated Press to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was not returned.
Taiwan vows to remake its TV drama industryTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s culture minister has pledged to invest more than $20 million to reinvigorate the local production of TV drama series that has faltered under competition from mainland China and South Korea.
Lung Yin-tai said Friday the government will fund the making of five flagship drama series and help TV stations attract talent to raise the content and quality of their productions.
Until a few years ago, Taiwanese soap operas had captivated China with heart-wrenching love stories featuring stylishly dressed protagonists.
But Chinese filmmakers have struck back, leveraging high salaries to attract Taiwanese actors and other movie workers to work on the mainland.
